Everything has become way too complicated. I understand it will usually be that way in science, engineering, and technology, but I’m focused here on our personal lives and on national programs and policies.
Instead of adding amendments, clarifications and exemptions to direct almost every aspect of government action and our personal behavior, let’s cut to the simplest way to get something done, without trying to rig the outcomes.
It will take some courage, but here are some initial ideas to point us in what I believe are the right directions. I welcome your input on each one. I don’t expect that anyone will agree with everything that is proposed here, but I hope the ideas will encourage civil discussion.
Federal Taxes. Instead of the incredibly complex current tax code, let’s make it very simple. Add up all that you have made from any and every source—wages, commissions, tips, stock sales, real estate, long term, short term, gambling, everything—deduct a fixed amount for the size of your family, and then pay a set percentage of that income as your tax. The form will be the size of a postcard. All income will be treated the same. No deductions for mortgage payments, gifts, etc. Just how much did you take in? Pretty simple.
As a starting point, based on earlier studies, let’s have an individual exemption of $25,000, a married couple exemption of $60,000, and another $10,000 exemption for each dependent child and for each person for whom you are the primary care giver. Then pay 18% tax on all income above those deductions.
A married couple with two children earning $100,000 would have an $80,000 exemption and pay $3,600 in tax, meaning an effective tax rate of only 3.6% on their income. If they earned $200,000, they would pay $21,600, for a tax rate of 10.8%. At $1 million, they would pay $165,600, for a tax rate of 16.6%. And so on.
My figures are first stabs at workable values. Smarter folks can improve them, but a marginal rate in the range of about 18% should work. And, by the way, we will thereby also save much of the IRS’ annual budget of about $15 billion, and move about 90,000 smart people to the productive side of the economy.
Federal Spending. Our National Debt and Deficits are simply unsustainable, as I wrote about in my May blog post. We now spend more on Interest than on Defense, which is insane. We must cut the level of spending. For entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, we must tweak the age and other requirements for younger people to ensure that those benefits still exist when they are older.
For everything else, instead of imagining that Congress will pass legislation and compromises on a zillion different favorite programs, we should instead pass one law to mandate that our highly intelligent and well-trained managers at every level of government will do the following: Figure out how to fulfill the responsibilities of your individual program, staff, department or agency next year using 3% less funds. You can do it! And the next year, another 3%, for a total of 5 years and at least a 15% reduction. Government spending on everything will decrease while the economy will grow, reducing and hopefully eliminating the deficit. And then we can start to tackle the enormous size of the National Debt itself.
Hire Whomever You Want. Get rid of all DEI and Affirmative Action programs and requirements, thereby saving about $12 billion annually and freeing about 60,000 talented people to have more productive careers.
For every position, choose whomever you want, presumably based on your assessment of a candidate’s ability to get the job done in the best possible way, irrespective of all other traits. If you think your business, service or educational institution will best be served by hiring/including only black females, go for it. Or transgender people over forty. Or white males. Or one of every color and tribe. Your call. Be positive about your choices, but don’t get upset over how others make their choices.
Congressional Districts. Apply that same logic to drawing Congressional Districts. The unintended consequence of Affirmative Action is that in an attempt to achieve some sort of racial balance we now have almost 100% legally gerrymandered districts; we’ve created districts that are only either
majority Red or majority Blue, and that’s it.
We should go back to making a district out of a logical group of geographic counties. Or, worst case, a split-county district should look like a circle or a rectangle, not a spider. That way politicians will have to learn how to appeal to a wider range of local constituents of all persuasions, and how to compromise effectively to get elected, before they go to Washington. Hopefully that experience will then make them more effective as they craft national laws for how we should live.
National Service. Here’s one that probably won’t win many friends, but I strongly believe in it. We learn a lot about living our best lives from doing, from coping, from getting up from setbacks, and serving others. One of the best ways to accomplish that, while also helping the nation, is National Service.
Everyone will be included. You don’t have to go into the military, though that might be a great choice. Several existing programs will be designated as National Service and will be expanded, such as Teach for America, the Peace Corps, working in Health Care, the Forest Service, being a Caregiver. And you can choose any period of at least 18 months between your 18th and 24th birthdays to start your service. If you go to college or a tech school beforehand, you may have better skills to deploy, like in teaching or serving as an officer. But somewhere between age 18 and 26 you will fulfill your national service, accepting an assignment based on a combination of your interests, your skills and the nation’s needs. And hopefully learn a lot about yourself and others, while making a real and positive difference for tens of thousands of people.
When I was in the Navy, young men right out of high school from Harlem and the Deep South were thrown together in divisions, meaning that they
worked, slept, and hung out together on a ship. They had nowhere to go, and they had to learn not only how to get along, but how to work together effectively and to excel as a unit. Almost everyone did. We need a lot more of that right now.
You may well ask how this proposal is a simplification, since it will cost to employ young people in all sorts of service roles. I think it simplifies because this process forces young people out of their comfort bubbles and naturally teaches responsibility, teamwork, empathy, maturity, and patriotism. I believe that many of our problems today—crime, drugs, fatherlessness, mental health, to name a few—would be greatly reduced if these qualities were celebrated, encouraged, and experienced by all our citizens in their early 20’s. And paid National Service will give everyone that opportunity, plus accomplish positive outcomes in many important areas, from Defense to Medical Care.
Energy. First, keep all reasonable rules for ensuring that our air, water and soil are not polluted. Then end all government programs to pick winners and losers, and instead let all forms of energy creation and storage compete in the market. Fossil fuels, solar, nuclear, batteries, wind, thermal, fuel cells, biofuels. Drive the cost of energy down and create an environment in which new technology can break through to solutions that should ultimately actually reduce our man-made carbon footprint.
Return to the States. I know it’s messy, but the Tenth Amendment reads “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” We have strayed far from this foundational, simplifying principle.
The Supreme Court has correctly guided us back to this principle on abortion, creating different rules in different states based on local preferences. Yes, it’s not uniform, but it also creates fifty petri dishes in which we can all see how different approaches work out in practice, which should eventually mold a near-national consensus.
A great place to start the pushback to local responsibility is the Department of Education, which only began to function in 1980. Somehow we made it for over 200 years without this federal department, relying on parents, local governments, and the states to create and administer a pretty successful education system. Abolishing the Department of Education and saving $2 billion annually will be a good first step to encourage local leaders to take more responsibility for important issues in their constituents’ lives, rather than assuming that “the federal government” will solve all problems.
Genders. Let’s “follow the science.” There are only two genders, and they are already evident in the womb. Language and pronouns have always followed our obvious gender traits. If you are an adult and want to do something else, then go for it if you must. But don’t expect the rest of us to change how we speak or respond to visual traits because you want to be different.
Sex Celebration and Grooming in Schools. Sex education has always primarily been the responsibility of the family, at the intersection of parental guidance, faith teaching, if any, and outside influences. Beyond the teaching of the obvious basics in Biology, what role does any school have in encouraging any sexual activity of any type? Educators should not be celebrating or encouraging sexual orientation or activities. Leave those issues to the parents, as imperfect as they may be.
Children and Technology. Kids of any age should be able to have dumb phones that can only send and receive calls. But there should be a minimum age for possessing or using a smart phone outside the home. I suggest 16. Like automobiles, guns, and alcohol, smart phones require maturity to use them responsibly. If our young teens get their faces out of their screens, they might discover a whole new world of possible interactions and activities.
War on Drugs. End it. Treat drugs and drug addiction like we treat alcohol and gambling. The latter two can easily destroy lives, just like drugs can, but there are legal alternatives and controlled sources that have eliminated death from moonshine and death from the gaming mafia. Beyond the addictions, we must eliminate the more than 70,000 annual deaths from Fentanyl, caused in part because of who is manufacturing and distributing these pills—criminal cartels and vicious gangs, with no accountability.
This is a huge subject on which I’ve written much in the past, but the bottom line is that we’re not only destroying lives here, but we’re decimating other countries, all because of the violence, bribes and illegal organizations that create and smuggle illegal substances into our country to feed and to increase the addictions.
It won’t be easy or painless, but we’ve got to figure out, quickly, how to regulate and make drugs available without having them be the foundation
for murderous gangs and organized crime. Prohibition was a disastrous program based on the best of intentions. So is the War on Drugs.
Save the money and resources that the War on Drugs costs, estimated to be $50 billion annually. Instead, tax drugs like we tax alcohol. Then use the savings and the income to expand mental health and housing alternatives for those who are addicted. Care for drug addicts like alcoholics. Neither is good. But I expect they’ll both always be with us, and we should minister to them, not empower gangs with our well-intentioned but misguided laws and programs that don’t work.
I again appreciate that not everyone will agree with all these simplifications. But I’m trying to shift the focus from complicated and unworkable answers to ones that can actually take hold and make a real difference. You may well have other proposals, or better ways to accomplish the areas I’ve addressed here. Please, join the dialogue.
I will conclude by letting you know about something you might enjoy, and by asking for your quick help to let others know about what we’ve been up to these years.
First, if you like US history, you might enjoy The Georgia Politics Podcast interview of Taylor Branch and me about our improbable exploits in the summer of 1968 as 21-year-old delegates to the Georgia Challenge Delegation at the DNC in Chicago.
And you can see the pictures I took at the convention with my new Instamatic camera in 1968 at www.parkerhudson.com/1968gallery.
Second, I’d love to reach more readers for my books and this blogpost before He reassigns me. Please share this post with others by clicking on this link.
And if you’ve read any of my books, please go to Amazon or Goodreads and leave Ratings, or better yet, written Reviews. A great place to start is On The Edge, but please don’t overlook the others.
Thank you for your help and your encouragement over so many years. All the best.
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